Michael Dukakis

Image Sgt. Matthew Roe/10th Public Affairs Operations Center, via Reuters and The New York Times

The New York Times adds a little pebble to the mountain of John McCain's woes this morning with an article about that walkabout the good Senator did in Baghdad the other day. After this excursion, McCain famously declared that parts of Baghdad were perfectly safe to stroll around in.

A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions.

“What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday.

Pictured above is the Senator in his bullet-proof vest. What you can't see are the three helicopters circling overhead, or the full infantry company deployed to shield him, or the traffic barriers that kept ordinary Iraqis away from him.

Every campaign has moments that crystallize them. For Michael Dukakis, it was trying to look tough by being photographed riding a tank. For George Bush senior, it was not having an answer to how much a quart of milk costs.

So let me now see if I can goad the HillaryBots of the world into their usual chorus of aggrieved bleating; here goes.

Face it: Hillary has little if any chance of ever being elected President. To be sure, lightning may strike, and she may turn out to be the first former First Lady elected to the office. She may also, perhaps, reverse the complete failure of liberal Northeastern Senators over the past generation to connect with what is known as the rest of the country. It could be that she's going to be the first female President. She may even, perhaps, avoid pulling the rest of the Democratic Party down to a monumental, Goldwater-in-1964-style defeat.

Perhaps, but I am not betting on it. Nor should you.